RJ Naved mastered the art of mimicking people at a very early age and now is renowned for his show 'Mirchi Murga' on Radio Mirchi. Be it speaking about various issues happening in society to offering a daily dose of laughter on radio, Naved seems to know the pulse of his audience. In a tete a tete , with Radioandmusic.com’s Dhiarya Ingle, the RJ talks about his opinion on the role of  an RJ in today’s society, his childhood and a lot more.

Tell us about your childhood

I was born in Uttar Pradesh and was not that good with my studies. I started learning the English language when I was in the sixth standard. Since my childhood, I had this amazing art of mimicking people. There were times when my mother waited for the vegetable vendor and I would go down and imitate the vendor. My mom would often come down in a jiffy and she would find me instead of the vendor. This was when I started experimenting with my voice.

How did you get into RJing?

I was working as a customer service executive for a leading mobile company. Whenever a customer was annoyed about something, the phone would be handed over to me, and I would portray a 60 year old.  The person at the other end of the line would automatically calm down. It was in the year 2000, when Radio Mirchi was organising an RJ hunt and we had to record our voices and send it to them. At the time, I did not have a phone, and had to borrow one from a friend who just had a credit of Rs 12. I recorded my voice and sent it to them.  After a few rounds of auditions, I go selected and since then, I have been with the station.

When it comes to the content on your show, how do you come up with ideas?

Well, I make it a point to think about the content before I go to sleep. It is always good to talk about something that is related to current happenings in society. When it comes to humour, I pick up lines from people around. For example I had met this uncle of mine who was very old and he was a painter. He would smoke ‘beedis’ all day, and this agitated his wife. She complained to me saying, “Tell him to do some work, rather than smoking all day.” Uncle was sitting right there and he replied, “Tell your aunty to stop nagging; I would paint to make our living.” She immediately shot back, “Yah yah, we know the sky was yellow in colour and you painted it blue.”

You are rather vocal about current happenings and often discuss it on air. Do you get threats from certain communities?